PM overestimates his power: Madhuku

A LEADING constitutional lawyer says there is nothing to stop President Robert Mugabe renewing the contracts of the military and police top brass.

Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, says Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara negotiated a flawed power sharing agreement which left all executive authority at Mugabe’s discretion.

Tsvangirai and Mutambara are fuming after Mugabe extended the term of Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri to 2014.

Mugabe’s announcement of the move came a day after the MDC duo came out of a meeting with the veteran leader and told journalists that the police chief was in the position in an acting capacity while consultations continue.

Mugabe’s rivals are keen to see the back of Chihuri, accusing him of presiding over a partisan police force and unprofessionalism.

But Madhuku says Tsvangirai and Mutambara are seriously constrained by their lack of authority on the matter.

“This is what we have always seen with the inclusive government,” Madhuku told the Voice of America’s Studio 7 on Friday night.

“The reality is that power resides with the President, but the other players in the inclusive government will always want to pretend that they also have some power, some responsibility, and this is what keeps creating this circus.”

Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, insisted on Friday that Mugabe had agreed in meetings with the Prime Minister on Monday and Wednesday to delay Chihuri’s appointment until further consultations had been held.

“We refuse to be seduced into believing the position being articulated by Cde George Charamba [Mugabe’s spokesman] merely because it is averse and allergic to common sense; it is allergic to the constitution and it is allergic to the agreement by the principals themselves.”

He described Mugabe’s decision to extend Chihuri’s term as mischievous and called it a “technical coup”.

“I would assume that the principals will put finality to this whole issue when they meet again on Monday,” Tamborinyoka added.